Yahoo portal gets Zoomer-friendly

Yahoo Canada and 50Plus.com have penned a deal geared to make their online content more relevant to web-surfing boomers.

Mature Canadians approaching retirement are becoming increasingly Internet-savvy in an online world dominated by content geared toward younger generations. In fact, it’s estimated that over seven million Canadians older than 45 are regular web surfers.

A new partnership between Yahoo Canada and 50Plus.com – a predominant source of online content for Zoomers (the term coined by media mogul Moses Znaimer) – aims to grant easier access to web content that’s most relevant to this demographic.

‘Internet is the new television. Zoomers have quietly yet quickly emerged as a recognizable force in the online landscape,’ explains Znaimer, the controlling shareholder of Fifty-Plus.Net International. ‘Our new relationship with Yahoo Canada will help us expand the 50Plus.com brand while giving us a greater ability to provide Zoomers with what they want.’

The partnership will combine Yahoo’s search and distribution capabilities with 50Plus.com’s targeted content. The Zoomer website will contribute articles to three of Yahoo’s channels: finance, living and travel. Links at the end of those articles will redirect readers back to 50Plus.com.

Says Yahoo Canada director of business development Ian Wilson: ‘Our arrangement with Moses Znaimer and 50Plus.com will bring fresh content to many of our Canadian channels while helping to bridge the age-relevant information gap that many bandwidth-boomers are craving, making Yahoo Canada the natural starting point for this generation.’

50Plus.com boasts two million hits a month on its website and also issues four bimonthly newsletters to a subscriber base of 30,000.